To my understanding, this is how I see this situation:

in 2014, Dostie took Buster to the properties adjacent to the Flores residence at 529 East Branch Street. He did this because he had permission from the neighbors.

Buster alerted 4 separate times to the presence of human remains.

The Sheriff of SLO was notified of this.

David Smallwood, Publisher of the California Register, met with Sheriff Parkinson in the Sheriff's office up in SLO. He asked him about Buster's findings.

David reports that the Sheriff said that Buster was not a 'Certified Dog'.

Naturally - the follow-up request was of course to have the Sheriff return to the property with their own 'Certified Dogs'.

But for whatever reason, this has never been done. At least not that we are aware of.

David Smallwood explained the Certification in a great way.

When Detective Dostie retired, 'Buster's Certification' was to remain at the Police Department. It was not transferable to Det. Dostie now that he was a private citizen. Therefore, Buster was no longer 'certified'.

Drivers License Example

David went on to provide this excellent analogy:

If you have a drivers license and have been driving for 5 years and then all of a sudden your license expires at midnight just before your birthday.

Does this mean that when you wake up the next day, did you forget how to drive a car? Of course not.

Buster did not just forget how to detect human remains just because his certificatiion expired.

9th Clue

The 4th character is the small letter 's'.

All we are asking...

We just ask the SLO Sheriff's Department to bring their own Certified dogs down to Susan Flores' property to see if they also alert to human remains just as Buster did.